Stan Williams will brief us on his progress in providing broadband to rural communities in Vermont via his leadership role in ECFiber. As one who lives in the broadband desert of Etna I am eager to hear how he is faring and hope he might find a way to bring his ideas across the river.

LAST WEEK'S ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Thanks, again, to Dave Allen for his comprehensive set of notes in my absence! One of the announcements was the plea for a speaker for the January 2 meeting… a plea that was answered! Another plea, repeated below, was for someone or some team to assume responsibility for the 2019 Auction.

Carol Olwert won the raffle, coming away with a "Rotarian at Work" t-shirt, which will come in handy for bell ringing, pancake serving, and hot dog cooking in the years ahead.

LAST WEEK'S PROGRAM:

The headline for December 19 was the presentation of a check for $130,000 to WISE, our 2018 auction partner. Nan Carroll and Rob Adams presented Peggy O'Neil, WISE Executive Director, with the check and Peggy and Jenny Williams, WISE Board President, expressed their thanks on behalf of their organization and the thousands they serve.

In advance of the presentation, President Tom Csatari thanked Nan Carroll and Rob Adams for their leadership of 2018 auction and reminded the Club that we need volunteers to lead the 2019 auction. President Tom also expressed deep gratitude to Rotarian Richard Weiss, who helped in securing most of the trips whose value raised a substantial portion of the auction proceeds. Finally, President Tom thanked Rebecca Winter from Vital Communities for her tremendous efforts to support the auction, presenting her with a tiara and bouquet of flowers.

Nan and Rob showed slides from the auction, reminding the Club how much fun we all had attending and participating.

The big question for the club is this: who will step up to lead the 2019 auction???

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Apart from the coming week, the balance of January features a good line up of speakers and concludes with a social.

January 9 we have Lauren Hefferon, who launched Ciclismo Classico, an adventure travel company that donated the Italy bike tour for our auction.

January 16 Sherri Oberg speaks to us. Nan Carroll reports Ms. Oberg is “working on a cool project with the small goal of ending world hunger, with support from Bill Gates and others”.

January 23 we have a presentation on CASA

January 30 we have a social in lieu of our regularly scheduled luncheon meeting. Stay tuned for details in future bulletins!

Happy New Year to all... and make a resolution to come to as many meetings as possible. As an old Rotary motto from the 1970s says: we miss when you miss!